I first met Javier Leyva, aka “The Sensei” back in 2007. He was the one who introduced me in the world of mountaineering. There are two distinct volcanoes which are an essential part of Mexico City’s scenery, the Sleeping Woman and her eternal guardian “Popocatepetl”. I had driven past these glacier topped volcanoes on numerous occasions, every time I passed them I was mesmerized by their beauty and the eternal grace. One afternoon, out of nowhere I decided I was going to climb the Sleeping Woman.
I went online to try and find out exactly how I was going to do this. It was then that I came across “Guias de Aventura Mexico”, a top of the line adventure company that provides guides and equipment so that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things. It was then that I made first contact with “The Sensei”, owner of the company. I gathered a few friends, established a date with Sensei and everything was sent in motion.
The expedition was a fiasco, one of our members got AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness), we had to evacuate him off the mountain, another member went AWAL and well to make a long story short, we had to turn around only a few hundred feet from the summit. This experience, while not a complete success, initiated me in the world of man vs. mountain.
After that experience, my cousin Roberto and I teamed up to tackle Pico de Orizaba, the summit of Mexico. At 5700 meters above sea level, this peak was my first real triumph. For 3 months I trained with Roberto, going to the Gym, running laps around the track and ascending the lower but very respectable peaks of Malinche & Nevado de Tolcua. Finally game day came.
We teamed up with Sensei once again. Halfway on our ascent Roberto got hit hard with AMS, vomiting constantly and falling to his knees, he was forced to turn back. Sensei and I looked each other in the eyes and decided to go for it. It was a long and cold night. After 8 hours of treacherous climbing we reached the summit. The wind howled like a raging wolf, we were on the summit for no more than a few minutes, unable to stand because of the intense wind currents threatened to blow us off the mountain. Success!! We had put two men on the tallest volcano of North America.
After that experience my cousin and I decided to take things to the next level. We had a meeting with Sensei and explained to him our desires and dreams. After a couple of hours we had established our next goal, The Peruvian Andes.
For eight months Sensei trained us in his rock climbing gym. We learned how to use ropes, how to tie knots, how to rappel, belay, survival 101 & basic first aid. We were astonished by Sensei´s stories, he told us about his ascents in the Andes, of the high plateaus in Bolivia, the unforgiving “Cordillera Blanca” in Peru, the towering volcanoes of Chile, the giants of Argentina and of course he told us his adventures in the Himalayas, his conquest of two peaks above 8000 meters. He also taught us the history of mountaineering, the pioneers of old, the French Expedition of Annapurna, the Brits and their obsession of Everest, his stories reminisced of the great adventurers; of Mallory, Hillary, Herzog, Messner, Carsolio, The Polish, The Italians, The Chinese, The Americans, The Mexicans. And then the time came, for us to conquer South America.
In a period of two weeks we climbed three peaks over 5000 meters. We ice climbed the great pitches of Yanapacha, negotiated our way through the immense crevasses of Pisco and the edged our way along the ridges Vallunaraju. In the end, 100% success rate, we had become the real deal, at last we were high altitude climbers.
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